


Five Steps

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: The Closer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22032574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: Sometimes the worst part of the job was watching the exact moment Deputy Chief Johnson's words sunk in.
Kudos: 7





	Five Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2019, 12 Days of Christmas Challenge

There were always parts of the job that each detective hated. Detective Gabriel had to think that there was, in particular, one part that everyone hated.

Notifications.

Brenda had told him once that performing a notification was about becoming the leading actor in the worst day of someone's life. Gabriel thought it was as good of a description as any. He had only performed a few but he had seen Brenda complete nearly a hundred. The way people reacted was slightly different each time but there was almost always a similar order. 

Five. The loved one stopped answering Brenda's questions and asked her what had happened. Sometimes Brenda was tease another answer out of them but at some point everyone stopped replying and just wanted to know what had happened. 

Four. Brenda took a deep breath and prepared herself for the words that would shatter someone's world. The loved ones watched her, hope still in their eyes. 

Three. Brenda always started the same way, she addressed them by name and then moved onto, "I am very sorry to tell you…" 

Two. Realisation dawned in the loved ones eyes. There's a moment where bright hope fades to despair. 

One. A life shattered. Never to be returned to one piece ever again. 

Detective Gabriel really didn't know how she did it time and time again. 


End file.
